 My name is Professor Masoud Badering. I teach Islamic law in the School of Oriental and African Studies. Islamic law has been taught at the School of Law here at Suez since 1948 when the department was first established. And we continue to teach it up to the current moment. It is quite clear that the relevance of Islamic law is quite important now in relation to its application in Muslim-majority countries, in relation to its influence on the lives of Muslims living in Diaspora and also its relevance to the discourse around international law, international human rights law globally now. All along, Islamic law has been one of the important specialized courses that we teach at Suez. And we teach it in a way that brings the course to life and also make it quite understandable to the students. There's no gain in the fact that Islamic law is a complex system of law, but then the way we teach it by the end of the course, students usually are always expressed satisfaction about their understanding of it. Now we teach it in a specialized way, as I said. We teach it from both a historical perspective and an evolutionary perspective that is both historical and evolutionary. By doing that, students are able to see the development, stage by stage, from the pre-classical period into the classical period up to the post-classical period and into modern times. Normally we start the course with the question about whether or not Islamic law is law. That is, is Islamic law really law? And this takes us into the debate of what one really means by law. We look at this from both a positivist perspective and from the natural law perspective and then examine the context of Islamic law within that debate. I mean, we do not rely only on modern contemporary English materials. We also make reference to traditional materials in that regard. Now we also look at the question of the debate between law and morality in relation to Islamic law. And then we move on to look at the different relevant terminologies so that students are able to really appreciate the course very well because as Islamic law, the language of it is Arabic. Students need to appreciate some basic terminologies such as the sharia itself in relation to what does it mean and the different ways by which it is used. And then the terminology Fikh, for example, and we look at terminologies like each tihar, for example, and so on and so forth so that students are able to understand these basic concepts and understand them as we move on. Now we then, in the first part of the course, we cover extensively Islamic legal theory that is Islamic jurisprudence, otherwise called Usul al-Fikh in Arabic. And in that regard, we mainly look at the sources, the methods and the principles of Islamic law. And as I said earlier, we look at it both from a historical and evolutionary context. Now in looking at the sources, we consider mainly the Quran as the major source of Islamic law. We look at it and examine its nature, its content, its subject matter and the legal content it contains. Now then we move on to look at the sunnah as well, which are the two major sources. Now when we start with the Quran, we look at it a bit in a historical context about how it was revealed and also its divine nature. Now after looking at that, we examine the question of whether the Quran itself can be considered as a code of law. That is a book containing law because it's a divine revelation and how can it be used in order to regulate the temporal life of human beings. Now in looking at that, we also look at the science of tafsir, that is the science of interpretation of the Quran. And in doing that, we look at it, I mean the material, the intrinsic methods of interpretation, then extrinsic methods of interpretation. We look at all these, such as the concept of Asbab-un-Nuzul for example, that's occasions of revelation. We look at it both literally, contextually and all the different rules of interpretation because that's, I mean, every student of Islamic law is expected to know there are specific rules of interpretation of the Quran and we look at this, I mean, seriously. Then we also look at its content. That is the legal content because there's a big debate about the volume of legal content within the Quran. So we look at the different academic debates about this and then engage the students in relation to the materials available on this topic. Then we look at its nature of the text. Let me say the nature of the text in the sense that some of the texts are quite specific, that is, Qati'i, and then some of them are quite speculative than me. And there are rules by which this relates with one another and in which they are interpreted. So students are exposed to these analyses of, I mean, the Quran as a reviewed text and its rules of interpretation, that is, I mean, the science of tafsir and also the legal content of it and how this interacts with one another and how these are used as sources of law. Then we look at the second main source of law, which is the sunnah and the debates around it. That is the nature of the sunnah and the rules, different rules that the sunnah play, for example, as a compliment to the Quran and also, for example, as a source that helps in explaining some of the general verses within the Quran and also as an independent source of law sometimes actually. So we look at this and the debates about how the sunnah evolved, whether it was meant to be a source of law right from the beginning or it developed in that context later. So we examine all these and also look at the categorization of the sunnah in the essence of the science of hadith. I mean, how the science of hadith evolved, how it developed and also the different books in that regard, different books of hadith in that regard by which students will be able to appreciate this second source of Islamic law. Then from there we look at the methods, that is the different methods of Islamic law by which the law is taking forward, such as the principle of consensus and how this is reached and how does it complement the sources, how does it take the sources that is the Quran and the sunnah forward and also the method, the analogy by which the sources, provisions within the sources are also taking forward. We also examine principles, principles by which the law is applied, such as the principles of a Muslim human benefit, the rural necessity, principles of a state sun, for example, and so on and so forth. So in relation to the jurisprudential perspective, we provide students with an in-depth understanding, analysis of the sources, the principles and the methods. Then the second term we look at, I mean, substantive issues, principally Islamic family law, whereby we look at issues of marriage, the various provisions on marriage within the Quran and the nature of marriage, the conditions, the rules regarding it. According to the different schools of Islamic jurisprudence, I mean, we look at the different schools of Islamic jurisprudence and their positions, their views in relation to the relevant provisions regarding marriage. And obviously we also look at the rules relating to the solution of marriages. That is, I mean, we look at divorce and so on and so forth. Then the rights of children, for example, within marriage and the right of spouses, for example, in relation to marriage and after its dissolution, we look at all these in the context of the evolution, that is, the traditional provisions and how this has evolved, particularly in relation to different Muslim-majority countries, both in Asia, Africa, and particularly also in the Middle East. And I mean, in that regard, the course is not only taught as a system of law which is stuck in the past. Students are able to appreciate its traditional foundations and then they see step by step how this has evolved over time and also how this is now applied in modern Muslim states. We also look at the concept of, I mean, codification. That is how codification, attempts at codifying Islamic law started and how this is now evolving in different Muslim states whereby the argument, I mean, that Islamic law has moved from what is, was traditionally known as jurist law to state law, perhaps part of state law and also justice law now. So we look at many, many cases from modern Muslim states where Islamic courts do exist and how they try as much as possible to move the interpretation of Islamic law forward. And one important aspect also is the issue of modern legal theory. I mean, it is interesting to be able to appreciate that, I mean, modern contemporary jurists and scholars in Islamic law have tried to come out with different modern legal theories by which Islamic law responds to the dynamic nature of human life. So we examine all these different theories in the context of the sources, the Quran and the Sunnah itself and also the classical jurisprudential rules of Islamic law and how this continues to be applied in different parts of Muslim majority countries today. Therefore, I mean, our students go through an experience of understanding Islamic law in its classical sense and in its post-classical sense and in its modern sense. So they don't learn about it, I mean, from as if the law was stuck in the past but rather they see it in Islamic law as living law and why it is still applied and used in many Muslim majority countries today. So by the time students have gone through this course, they come out quite well versed and well taught and very appreciative of Islamic law as a separate applicable legal system in its own right. And I mean, because this is a law school, students are also able to see it from the lens of more than western law, more than British law. I mean, because we use examples. I mean, everyone who teaches law in the school of law here, most of people who teach law in the school of law here also have experience as lawyers. So they are able to bring this experience into the course and students are able to see comparatively Islamic law in the light of, for example, British law and see how the similarities between them and also the differences, I mean, in relation to their application. So we teach it in a very, very interesting and very lively way whereby at the end of the course every year, students express great satisfaction and good understanding of the course. So if, I mean, anyone is out there who is interested in understanding Islamic law in the right perspective, Suas is the right place to be. As I said, it has been taught here, Islamic law has been taught here since 1948. I mean, by the leading experts in the subject area and continues to be taught by leading experts in that context as the years progress on. So we look forward to welcoming you to Suas to study Islamic law. Thank you.